Oh, you know, I was going to mention that: when someone asked, after hearing me sing a song in Spanish last week, if Italian was a language I was halfway familiar with, Italian being one of the languages I introduced Johnny Come Lately in, as in: 'La prossima canzone estatta scrita da un nostro amico . .' (forgive the phonetic-ness, if that's what it might be, of estatta scrita because I've no idea of italian grammar), if halfway familiar might be wholly the way to describe the minuscule fraction my familiarity with Italian lurks within. Grammar? Harumph.

Valkyrie of the Accordion? Philip - you Thor of the Guitar! You say the nicest things.

... and not to forget introducing "Johnny Come Lately" in various languages:

"Das nächste Lied wurde von einem Freund von uns geschrieben. Er heißt Steve Earle und ist ein riesig, berühmter Country und Western-Star aus Texas"

"la prochaine chanson..."

and and and...

I can reveal that James was an excellent Choirboy when 'e were a lad.

Naturally, the Pogues have always been the poorer for not hearing more of the Fearnley larynx but it was a relatively small sacrifice to pay for the pleasure of watching James fly through the air like the Valkyrie of the Accordion, which required he be kept away from stationary microphones.

That's not to say you don't hear James's voice at all on Pogues records. That's him at the start of "Live In Brixton" accounting for our late arrival on stage.

as I say elsewhere on pogues forums, I did backing vocals on Jesse James, but Elvis was so excited about peeing in every last damn corner of our record that he obliterates the sound of my delicate, refined sort of voice, with his pipes set at - whatever the setting is that you can fill a cathedral with, can't think of it now.

And once, it was suggested I sing the Green Grass of Home, but I had barely started, at a sound check at the Hope and Anchor, that the microphone was summarily taken away from me, and I have been more or less mute ever since. With the rare exception, Wild Rover possibly among them, but I can't remember that at all.

How come you didn't sing at least one song in the Pogues? Or am I wrong?

I think you can be heard singing a nice harmony in one verse to wild rover at the T&C Club Video.

We know you can sing!!